BMW’s little sub-brand Mini has been catching a lot of flak lately for, well, not being so mini any more. Having driven every “new” Mini for the past decade, we can attest to the fact that they’ve been growing, but it’s also become more refined and practical as time went on. Of course, there’s a limit to how much space you can get out of a 3-door hatchback, so a few years ago, BMW had the bright idea to turn Mini into an entire range of cars that aren’t so small any more. One of them is the Clubman you see here,

Revealed late last year, the Clubsport version of the ever-popular VW Golf GTI is supposed to be the most aggressive version of this front-driver yet. But with VW’s own Golf R available for just a few bucks more, does the Clubsport make sense?

There are a handful of cars out there that just feel right. Porsche’s Cayman is one of those, as it has the knack of shrink-wrapping itself around your limbs and feeling like an extension of them within a few kilometres of hustling down the road.

The McLaren F1 from the 1990’s is a motoring icon. It went on to become the fastest road going car at the time by clocking 372 kph, which surpassed the record of the RUF CTR2. McLaren’s current high-end hybrid, the P1, is considered to be the successor of this legendary supercar. But now, news from Autocar reveals that the McLaren Special Operations are busy creating a “hyper-GT” that would reincarnate the legacy of the F1 into a modern car. This new car is expected to be readied by 2018 and to come with a steep price tag of $2.61 million.

It’s been a good while with the 2013 BMW M135i so let’s talk about running costs. Servicing is cheap as it comes with a 5-year service pack so the only thing I should have to cover are tyres (which I’m sure will be fearsomely expensive if I stick with the OEM Pilot Super Sports) and batteries. The car came as standard with a 3-year service pack, but the cost to extend this to 5 years was a paltry QAR 500 — a real bargain considering that this period will probably include at least one major service (Inspection II in BMW parlance).

Nissan is bringing the Datsun brand back to the Middle East with the launch of two models in Lebanon, the on-DO and mi-DO. Datsun came back in 2014 after the brand was globally phased out in 1981. Datsun cars are currently being sold in India, Indonesia, Russia and South Africa.

Audi’s svelte A5 coupe has now been around for nine years, but it’s aged with the utmost of grace –- so much so that one could argue it’s still as visually appealing as the much newer BMW 4-Series and Mercedes C-Class Coupe it competes head-to-head with. But it’s clear an all-new model was due if the A5 was to remain competitive with Teutonic rivals in terms of performance, dynamics, cabin layout and mod-cons. Right on cue, here’s the new second-gen 2017 A5, which we had the opportunity to sample at its recent international launch in Portugal.